Sydney’s been a student of mine for about 8 years now, since she was 12. Sydney is absolutely delightful. Everyone at the dojo adores her. On the mat, Sydney has tons of fun and her aikido is extremely effective. She’s as fast as greased lightening.

Here’s Sydney’s story about when someone came at her with a knife. That was a mistake!

A lot of people say that aikido is not martially effective. I’m reminded of something Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan says about that. Ikeda Shihan says that the question is not whether aikido is effective. The question is whether *your* aikido is effective. Ikeda Shihan’s is and Sydney’s is, at least it was on that night. That’s what matters.

Practice for your art to be effective and it will be. Practice otherwise and you’ll get something else. At Aikido’Ka, we practice martially effective aikido in a safe, fun, friendly atmosphere.

And I’m so, so happy that Sydney is safe.

The video is 2:30.